
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 5, 1994                   TAG: 9401050082
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Medium

U.S. CAR, TRUCK MAKERS END YEAR ON A STRONG NOTE

Sales of U.S.-made cars and light trucks in December gave Detroit a lot to cheer about at the end of a year that one manufacturer described as "trying." The final quarter was the industry's best in six years.

Automotive sales, which appeared to falter in the summer of 1993, shot up in the last three months to boost production and add an estimated 1.5 percent to the fourth-quarter gross production product.

For all of December, analysts put the annualized car-selling rate at a seasonally adjusted 7 million units and the light trucks at 5.6 million units - matching the prior monthly record set in November, which topped October's 5.4 million.

Economist David Cohen at MMS International described the closing quarter of 1993 for both U.S. car and light trucks assembled domestically as the "best three-month period since 1987."

"To see numbers like these for three months in a row, you'll have to go back to 1987," Cohen said.

Light trucks stole the show at a near-record 5.8 million units, analysts said.

According to the American Automobile Manufacturers Association, U.S. car companies sold 10.369 million cars and trucks in 1993, up 10.4 percent from 9.396 million units a year ago.

"Car sales were up 5.9 percent, but the fastest-growing segment of the market was trucks," the association said, adding that U.S. truck sales surged 16.3 percent to 4.730 million units in 1993 from 4.068 million units in 1992.

"When final sales figures from all manufacturers are available, it is expected that 1993 car and truck sales will have exceeded 14 million vehicles for the first time since 1990," the AAMA said.

"America's car companies are leading the nation's economic recovery," said AAMA President Andrew Card Jr. "More importantly, we are winning back market share from foreign manufacturers.

by CNB